Willow Smith samples Radiohead on haunting new track Sugar and Spice

Willow Smith, seen her in 2010, released the track through Tumblr (Picture: AFP)

Willow Smith has sampled Radiohead’s Codex for a new track entitled Sugar and Spice uploaded to YouTube.

A teen pop star sampling a well-respected rock band with a loyal fanbase sounded like a recipe for disaster, but Smith reworks the track Codex off Radiohead’s 2011 album King Of Limbs convincingly, turning it into an aching ballad.

The lyrics, focusing on the difficulty of being both sugar and spice, may not match up to Thom Yorke’s celebrated lines, but the track certainly shows a maturing of sound from her previous hits such as the unavoidable Whip My Hair.

The song was released through Smith’s official Soundcloud and Tumblr accounts, the URL for which is saulepleurant (French for ‘weeping willow’).

The 12-year-old is the daughter of acting parents Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.

She has also appeared in movies, making her debut in I Am Legend in 2007 and lending her voice to animated film Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.